Sturt saw before him an immense plain, of a
dark purple hue, with its horizon like that of the sea, boundless in the
direction in which he wished to proceed. This was the Stony Desert. That
night they camped in it, and the next morning came to an earthy plain,
with here and there a few bushes of polygonum growing beside some stray
channel, in some of which they, luckily, found a little muddy rain water
still left. When they camped at night they sighted, for a short time,
some hills to the north, and, on examining them through the telescope,
saw dark shadows on their faces as if produced by cliffs. Next day they
made for these hills, in the hope of finding a change of country and feed
for their horses; but they were disappointed. Sand ridges in terrible
array once more rose up before them. "Even the animals," says Sturt,
"appeared to regard them with dismay."
Over plains and sand dunes, the former full of yawning cracks and holes,
the party pushed on, subsisting on precarious pools of muddy water and
fast-sinking native wells; until, on the 3rd of September, Flood, the
stockman, who was riding ahead, held up his hat and called aloud to them
that a large creek was in sight.
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